Fun Pictures and More Okpo!

I realized that I had far more pictures of us clowning around at school ( although we do our fair share of work , sometimes you have to cut up a bit.... and the kids enjoy it) But I have been carrying my camera around alot and here are some school bits that I found amusing!

This picture below was taken from our second story school window out towards an apartment complex. These alley cats were hanging out, and I snapped a picture of them before they were able to get away. There are tons of cats all around Korea, which is neat. It makes me miss misty my old cat and Buddy and Dolly Joseph's family cats! Unfortunately the ones here are not as sweet... they will hiss at you if you blink at them wrong.

This is another shot taken out of the window, as you can see we are right next to the bay so we can smell the ocean when we are teaching. It is really beautiful to walk home along the bay after work, or to stop by one of the many restaurants with windows facing the water. The lights on the water are fantastic. We love our Island!

Here is Joseph in the teacher work room a few days after Halloween! Still using his claw that he made. As you can see it is so useful!

Besides being a handy drink holder it also works well by scaring the children into doing their homework... " If you forget it tomorrow, teacher Joseph will bring out "the claw"."



Here is a picture of the books that we use. They are called Up and Away in English... these are levels 3 and 4. They all have very basic English, and they also have a workbook so we can make worksheets for the kids with extra practice to take home for homework or for test review.

Our Older Kids read this periodical called Kids Times. It sets the class up for more of a discussion setting so they can really use their english. It had articles on everything from the "nutritional value of grapes", Politics in Korea and a fun one called "why do your parents nag you" ( I had a special interest in that one! And apparently it is because they love you.)

They also contain special feature articles on people who make a difference. This Kids Time included an article on a famous rapper named Ludicris..... really... I just thought he made scary rap music with vulgar lyrics, but hey he did donate money one time so lets teach Korean kids about him.... not so sure on this one, but it was a funny article... even funnier was the Kids had no idea who he was anyway, so I got to listen to them butcher his name for twenty minutes.

Ludee-chriZ.

After work this week, we went to a Korean restaurant, but we were tired of the same old Bacon like meat they give us, so we decided to ask Daniel how to say sausage...which is just Sausage-e. All you have to do is add an extra "e" sound and you are good to go!

They give you tons of side dishes, we had sprouts, lettuce, kimchi, bean past, raw garlic ( you roast it on the girll with your food!) Onions in a vinegar sauce.....

Rice with a side of mustard for dipping the sausage in and another close up of the onions in the vinegar broth.

We also ordered a spicy tofu soup with pepper and beef broth it is very spicy but you get a spoonful of rice and dip it in, it is so good! They also gave us a vegetable pancake, coleslaw with melon dressing and peanuts and some kind of spicy onion root.... the mixture of the cool with the spicy and the different colors is all part of the korean way to serve and enjoy a meal! This was a delicious meal, and was definitely more than we could eat!

Now to a totally different day and different meal! We headed to Okpo on saturday Nov. 7th and found a cafe we had heard really good things about called the Lemontree. Rumor has it that they serve the closest thing to a western cheeseburger, so Joseph and I paid our two dollars to get the bus to Okpo and we decided to try it. We got a garden salad ( which was not from any garden I have ever seen) and a cheeseburger.

wierd garden salad... it was corn, cabbage, cucumber, tomato sprouts and some broccoli... with a tangy fruit dressing and lots of salt and pepper... I didn't put that on it just came with it... haha love it.

The salad came out first. Here is Me looking sleepy because I am not able to fully open my eyes for any camera with a flash!

Here is joseph proving to me that you can in fact take a picture with your eyes fully open... show off. I am posting this picture just to smite him!

Here is a picture of the lovely restaurant... this is literally the whole thing. We sat right at the counter and this is what was behind us... this place literally had three tables, and was run by two lovely korean women who had traveled to the US and canada and were big fans of our food!


HAHA, Joseph dug into his half before I could turn the camera on for a picture, but it was supposed to come with chips, but these were fries, so maybe they went to England to since on the menu they were labeled as chips! Nice suprise... they were really good too!

Yeah... it was totally worth it... no fat daddies, but better than we expected.

After filling our bellies at the Lemon tree we decided to go to the Geoje Museum. We were greeted by two young girls mopping the place so we were worried it was closed, but thankfully that was just the lobby so we were able to get tickets to see all three floors of Geoje History. We were even more excited because on the side of the building was a sign with pictures of mummies and had the dates October 24th -Nov 24th....so we naturally thought those would be on display. Much to our dismay, signs in Korea lie... they lie bad, so we ended up seeing some old boats, tools, clothes, paintings and pottery, but no mummies... They also had a big Kimchi pot that you were supposed to throw money into and you got a wish, Joseph totally sunk his coin into the Kimchi pot, so maybe his wish will come true! I have no idea what his wish was, but I would have wished for the mummies!

It was smaller than we thought, so having planned for us to spend three hours there, we only ended up using one of the alloted hours, so next it was off to the Okpo Victory Statue Park.

We had to hike up a huge hill towards where we thought the monument park was, and when we finally got to the top we stopped and took a breather and captured these pictures.

Here we are dressed alike in Black.... again... this is not a good habit to get into!

Here is the Dawoo Shipbuilding plant area... not much was going on today, but it was a brilliant view!

Here is a picture of Okpo from up high. This was the big major street we walked up.... the hill was much steeper than it looks in the picture, at least that is what the backs of my thighs kept telling me!

We saw a cool pagoda and had to stop in for a view, they have the most beautiful art on the inside... here is the ceiling of the Pagoda near the Park.




This picture didn't come out as well, but I wanted to show the awesome view... we were the only people there. It was so calm and quiet, Joseph and I quite like Okpo just as a getaway from our city now and then.

Here is a view of the city from the Pagoda.

After spending a good amount of time in the pagoda just chilling it was time to walk on and find our statue park. We had a huge long sidewalk to follow so I captured this shot on the way, it was still really nice weather even for November, so I just had on Jeans a shirt and a light jacket... I could get used to this warm nice fall weather.

Unfortunately we never did find the park, we walked about two miles and it was only supposed to be one mile, so we must have somehow missed a turn or something... Our map of Okpo was not too well drawn....so being super tired, we headed back to the main streets and caught the bus home, only of course, after purchasing a few fiber one bars.

And here is what you have all been waiting for. Joseph donning his new treasure. Yes... we got a scooter... it looks like a motorcycle, but I am fairly sure it doesn't go fast enough to qualify. We plan to use it more in the spring, but right now Joseph is the only one who rides it, and only during the day with his helmet, but of course you can't wear a helmet during a photoshoot!

Joseph looking Bad to the Bone!

I however am not even allowed to sit on it... haha. I am sure my mom appreciates that!

Anyway, that is all for now... more updates later. we have a full week of school ahead of us, and we hope to plan a trip to Busan. We are looking foward to it!